Promising site: eduClipper

This looks very promising. It claims to be site to hold all web/digital information for you in one spot. I have tried the bookmarking thing and have not been impressed. This holds true promise if it works. We will keep our eye on this one. I have signed up to receive information as it is released. Supposed to be released soon. We will just wait and see!

Read to Lead in Wisconsin State Parks

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is teaming with Wisconsin's statewide Read to Lead initiative to encourage kids and families to read everywhere—including the great outdoors! Each week in 2012 a new pairing of a state park and nature book is featured. These books, geared towards ages 5 to 9, are available for reading at the parks or local libraries.

Kids, read (or have someone read to you) the book of the week and see how it relates to the state park! Read 20 or more books in 2012 and enter to win a Kindle Fire® or other prizes! Enjoy special nature programs at some parks during their "Read to Lead" week!

Click here to go to entry form

Of course Wyalusing State Park is in right here in our neighborhood and their featured book is The Voyageur's Paddle by Kathy-Jo Wargin

Voyageur is the French word for "traveler," but in the Great Lakes region during the seventeenth century it described the men who made their living trading furs and other goods along water routes. Young Jacques's father is a voyageur. He works long hours in bitterly cold weather, gone for weeks at a time. As he awaits his father's return from a season of trading, Jacques dreams of the day he will hold the canoe paddle and join the ranks of voyageurs.



Click here to access more information on the Read to Lead in the State Parks initiative

High School Back Entrance Upgrade

With the upgrade to the back parking lot, the High School Back Entrance is now a main entrance to the building. We have a small project being done this summer to add an inside vestibule that will fit the architectural features of the building and provide an entrance that is practical and an effective energy saver.



The upgraded more efficient glass plus the double set of doors will reduce a major portion of the building load attributed to the envelope: exfiltration and infiltration. These are, respectively, the passage of conditioned air out of the building and the movement of unconditioned air into the envelope. This is a busy building entrance that loses much energy, approaching losses from a door open to the exterior all the time. The double set of vestibule doors will greatly reduce the flow of air through an entrance. Also, the volume of air trapped between the portals acts as a buffer to the transfer of heat through the vestibule. When there is no traffic, the trapped volume of air is an effective insulator that increases the thermal resistance of the passageway. The old glass doors were a source of high energy loss through leakage and inefficiency.

Employee Forms

Notice to employees from Patti:

In the June 30th paystub you will find 3 forms. Vision/Dental and Flex-Non Flex. You do not need to do anything with these forms unless you want to change Vision or Dental or Flex. Examples: have Dental/Vision now and don't want it -need to sign waiver on form or never had Dental (can only have dental if eligible for health)/Vision and want it now need to enroll. Any premiums that you pay are already flexed, if you want them to be non-flex (after-tax) you will need to fill out the flex/non-flex form. Please have these back to me by July 15th so I can make changes for the August 1st start.

One more thing: If anyone wants to change their number of payrolls for the 2012-20113 school year (20 or 24) stop in and see me or let me know and I will get a form to you. The September 15th payroll will be the start of this change.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SIGN AND DATE ALL FORMS IF YOU MAKE CHANGES.

I have the forms on my door at bluff view that have needed your attention. Thanks for all your help in these matters.

Swim Team

Another activity for the PdC kids during the summer is the Swim Team. Although not a sport, this team is associated with the PdC Public School as an activity account. Many of the team members are also in our Summer Advanced Swim PE class although the class is not a requirement for the swim team or vice versa. Below are pictures from the Swim Meet at Mineral Point on 6-27-12. Competing with Prairie du Chien were Mineral Point and Lancaster. I apologize for some of the pictures being flipped - I can't quickly figure out how to download and flip them. If I do figure it out, I will edit this post so you do not have to roll your computer over to see them. Anyway, hope you enjoy seeing the pictures of the kids participating in a great summer activity.

The Medly Relay 200m (back, butterfly, breast and free strokes), they are doing back stroke in the pic, the middle lane is Breann Holler and 1st lane is Allison Krogan (11-12 age group).


The 50m Butterfly (age group 13-14) Jaqueline LaHaie


Kylie Wright getting ready to do 100m Distance Freestyle (age 11-12 group)


 The Breast Stroke (age group 15-18)  Mercie Ghjoberg


The 50 m Butterfly (age 15-18 group) Elizabeth Brom 

Conference Realignment is Possible for PdC

There have been a number of meetings of Activity Directors and Principals on conference issues over the past five or six years. Recently the Superintendents of both the SWAL and SWC conferences have been brought into the discussions as the problems are getting more serious.

At these meetings there has been a lot of talk about what is not working, such as being locked out of playing games/matches within a reasonable distance. The problem is acute in football starting already in 2013 as getting games to fill a nine game schedule is becoming difficult, to borderline impossible, without traveling hundreds of miles. Football is just the start of a problem for SWC schools as some have lost up to 24 non-conference games as neighboring conferences are merging and closing ranks

For us at PdC. The Coulee and MVC have signed an agreement that starting in 2013 they will be crossing over for football games, so going north for games may be out. Traditionally we have played some Iowa schools, but they have closed regional schedules in Iowa for football, so going west is not even an option anymore. The conferences to the east have entered into agreements to close up for football.

The current school affiliations are as follows:

SWAL

Cuba City

Boscobel

Darllington

Fennimore

Iowa-Grant

Mineral Point

Riverdale

Southwestern

SWC

Dodgeville

Lancaster

Platteville

Prairie du Chien

Richland Center

River Valley

At these SWC/SWAL meetings, the conversations boil down to basically two options going forward:

• If the conferences stay somewhat in tact, the consensus is that the following is the best combination. A combined 14 team conference for Girls' Basketball, Boys' Basketball, Softball, and Baseball where the conferences (6 team SWC, 8 team SWAL - see teams above) stay about the same, but there would be mandated crossover games between the two groups to partially alleviate scheduling problems. Along with this a regional 'football only' configuration, across a number of conferences, would need to be developed by the WIAA. This "solution" was viewed by almost all as a short-term, if it even can be accomplished, band aid type fix that may create more problems than it solves. Plus, there is no indication that the 'football only' can, or will, become a reality.

• Then what happens instead or next? The question is what would/could be a longer term solution that might work for the smaller SWAL schools. This is what I call a complete blow-up of the SWC scenario. We are not really even in this conversation. All of the SWAL schools have verbally agreed, except Riverdale, that they could take Platteville, Dodgeville and Lancaster as those schools are a fit geographically. The discussion is that even though they are bigger schools, that they would accept those three to make the SWAL a complete conference for all sports and a closed 10 team, without Riverdale, football conference. The WIAA would then place Riverdale in one of the smaller conferences in the area. Again, we are not in that mix.At PdC we have been communicating for about a year, that we could see that there was a strong possibility that the SWC Conference could be disbanding and that we, and a couple of other schools, may be without homes for activities. To protect ourselves if this does blow up, so that we do have a potential home for activities; we have reached out to the MVC to test that possibility. The response has been very positive. The initial conversations are that they would love to get another school to join them as they now have seven. 

MVC Schools

Aquinas High School

Central High School

Holmen High School

Logan High School

Sparta High School

Onalaska High School

Tomah High School

This is positive, that we have a backup plan, or an insurance policy so-to-speak in the MVC. However, it is a given that if this happens, not everyone will be happy. But there is absolutely no plan where every sport and everyone can be happy, and on top of that the options are very few.

We compete with many of these MVC schools in many different activities now. However, everyone needs to be aware that, under the category of competitiveness, these are generally much larger schools. On that front, the main issue is usually football as all teams do not make the playoffs. On that competitive level, the MVC schools now play the Coulee schools in crossover and the Coulee schools are holding their own. I really have no clue, but it has been relayed to me that it has been estimated, by some analytic review of crossover games, that if we were in the MVC that we would have had a playoff bound record over the last few years.

We do match up fairly well as far as offered sports. Many of these schools have a wider array of sports such as tennis, hockey, and some have swimming. However, overall we offer a slate of sports that matches up, and from what we have been told, not having some of those other sports would be no problem.

In addition, they have other activities which would fit us well, such as they offer nice music programs which we could slide into. Academically, these are good schools that match up with our programming and would offer increased awards and affiliations for our students. The schools in the MVC would also offer greater sharing and collaborative opportunities for our staff.


This discussion is heating up as something needs to happen prior to the 2013 fall season.

Southwestern Wisconsin Educational Environment Professionals (SWEEP)

SWEEP had their annual conference in the PdC Public High School. Custodial and Maintenance personnel from across Southwestern Wisconsin attended this meeting.

Topics covered in-depth were:
-new rules and regulations on safety issues
-product updates
-bullying training

There were numerous displays, vendor booths, and equipment demonstrations.

SWEEP members give back to their communities as well as they sponsor a Scholarship program for member schools.

These are a few candid shots from the SWEEP convention: